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The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet
"The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet" is a Sherlock Holmes short story by the British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It first appeared in print in nine different newspapers between April 16 and April 24, 1892 in the United States"The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet" was published in two parts in the April 16 and April 23, 1892 editions of The Indianapolis News. It was published in two parts in the April 17 and April 24, 1892 editions of The Courier Journal (Louisville), the Detroit Sunday News, the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Sun (New York), The Sunday Boston Herald and The Sunday Inter Ocean (Chicago). On April 24, 1892, the entire text appeared in the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette (under the title "The Mystery of the Beryl Coronet) and the San Francisco Examiner (under the title "The Story of the Beryl Coronet"). and in the May 1892 issue of the magazine The Strand in the United Kingdom. It was published again in October 1892 as part of the anthology The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. In the story, a banker named Alexander Holder lends fifty thousand pounds to an unnamed client. As security for the loan, Holder temporarily takes possession of a coronet studded with thirty-nine beryls. The client warns Holder to make sure that no harm comes to the coronet. That evening, Alexander Holder sees his son Arthur apparently breaking a piece off the coronet. When Alexander Holder examines the coronet, he finds that a piece with three beryls on it is missing. Arthur denies having damaged the coronet and says that he does not know where the three missing beryls are. The police are unable to locate the missing beryls and are unable to get any more information out of Arthur. At the suggestion of the police, Alexander Holder asks the brilliant consulting detective Sherlock Holmes for assistance. Notably, in "The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet", Sherlock Holmes says, ""It is an old maxim of mine that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth".A similar quote, "How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?" appears in the sixth chapter of the 1890 Sherlock Holmes novel The Sign of the Four.A similar quote, "When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth", appears in the 1926 Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier". The story has been adapted for radio, film and television. Plot The story begins on a morning in February. It snowed the day before, the sidewalks are slippery and there are few people about. From the window of the apartment which he shares with Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson can see a man walking along Baker Street. From his behavior, Watson thinks that the man is mad. Holmes realizes that the man is simply deeply distressed and is coming to ask for Holmes' help. The man is Alexander Holder, senior partner of the bank Holder & Stevenson. He lives in a house called Fairbank in Streatham with his son Arthur and his 24-year old niece Mary. Alexander Holder and Mary rarely go out in the evening, although Arthur often does. Arthur has also frequently brought one of his friends, Sir George Burnwell, back to the house. Alexander Holder finds Sir George Burnwell charming but does not trust him. Arthur has often run up gambling debts. In the past, Alexander Holder paid his son's debts for him but has decided not to do so any longer. Arthur has twice asked Mary to marry him and she has turned him down twice. Alexander Holder also shares his home with four maids. He has known three of them for a long time and trusts them deeply. He has not known the fourth maid, Lucy Parr, for very long. Lucy Parr is very pretty and men often come to the house to see her. The Holder & Stevenson bank often loans large amounts of money to wealthy clients. As security for those loans, the bank accepts valuable objects from the clients, such as paintings and books, which are returned when the money is paid back. On the morning before Alexander Holder went to see Holmes, an important client, whom Holder does not name, asked for a loan of fifty thousand pounds. He said that he would be able to pay back the money in four days. As security, he left the famous Beryl Coronet. The coronet, studded with thirty-nine beryls, is worth at least a hundred thousand pounds. The client told Holder to make sure that no harm came to the coronet, telling him that its thirty-nine beryls are so rare that it would be impossible to replace any of them if they were lost. Holder decided that it would be safer to keep the coronet near to him at all times, rather than leave it at the bank. Therefore, he took it home and locked it in a drawer in his dressing room, located next to his bedroom. After dinner, he told his son Arthur and his niece Mary about the coronet. The maid Lucy Parr had just left the room, although she may still have been able to hear. Arthur told his father that the drawer in his dressing room was not very secure. He said that, when he was a boy, he opened it himself using the key for a cabinet in the storage room. Arthur later asked his father to lend him two hundred pounds to pay off a gambling debt. Alexander Holder refused. Arthur replied, "if you will not let me have it, then I must try other means". Before going to bed, Alexander Holder made sure that all the doors and windows were firmly shut, a task which he usually leaves to Mary. He saw Mary at a downstairs window, which she closed when he approached it. She remarked that she had just seen Lucy Parr come back from a meeting with a man. Alexander Holder was woken in the night by a noise. He then heard a sound like that of a window being gently closed and footsteps in his dressing room. He went into his dressing room and saw Arthur, wearing a shirt and pants but no shoes or socks, holding the Beryl Coronet and apparently trying to bend a piece of it. When he saw his father, Arthur dropped the coronet. On examining the coronet, Alexander Holder found that a piece of gold with three beryls on it was missing. Holder angrily shouted at his son, demanding to know what he had done with the piece that he had broken off the coronet. Arthur denied having damaged the coronet and said that he did not know where the three missing beryls were. Alexander Holder's shouts woke the whole household. Mary came to the room, screamed and fainted. The police were called. Arthur said to his father, "you will not have me arrested at once, it would be to your advantage, as well as mine if I might be allowed to leave the house for five minutes". Thinking that he planned to escape, Alexander Holder refused to allow his son to do so. The police searched Arthur, the entire house and its gardens but could not find the three missing beryls. Arthur was arrested but refused to give the police any more information. The police advised Alexander Holder to go to Sherlock Holmes for further assistance. The banker also decided to offer a reward of one thousand pounds for the return of the three beryls. Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson and Alexander Holder travel to Streatham. Holmes spends a long time looking around the outside of the house. Watson and Holder go inside. Mary appears. She tells her uncle that Arthur is innocent and that he should tell the police to release him. Holmes comes into the house. He questions Mary. He realizes that she is insinuating that Lucy Parr and her lover, the greengrocer Francis Prosper, were responsible for the crime. Holmes knows that Francis Prosper has a wooden leg, although Mary does not tell him that. Holmes examines the downstairs windows, looking carefully at the sill of one of them through his magnifying glass, before going upstairs to the dressing room. The key which Arthur mentioned earlier, the one to a closet in the storage room, is still in the room. Holmes uses the key to open the drawer and takes out the Beryl Coronet. Holmes asks Holder to break another piece off the coronet. Holder refuses. Holmes tries but finds that he is not strong enough to snap a piece off the coronet. He adds that if anybody was able to break a piece off the coronet, it would make a very loud noise. Sherlock Holmes goes outside again. He asks Watson, Alexander Holder and Mary not to go with him, telling them that they would leave more footprints. More than an hour later, Holmes comes back inside. He tells Alexander Holder to come to see him in Baker Street between nine and ten o'clock the following morning. Holmes and Watson return to Baker Street. Holmes disguises himself as a vagrant and goes out again. He returns a few hours later, changes back into his regular clothes, and goes out once more. Watson goes to bed at midnight, by which time Holmes has not yet returned. Watson gets up after nine o'clock the following morning and finds that Holmes has returned. Alexander Holder arrives. He says that Mary has gone. She left a note which said, "I feel that I have brought trouble upon you. If I had acted differently, this terrible misfortune might never have happened". Holder thinks that she might have committed suicide but Holmes says that she has not and that Holder should not worry about her. Holmes asks Holder if he would pay a thousand pounds for each of the missing beryls. Holder agrees. Holmes reminds him that he also offered a reward of a thousand pounds for the beryls' return. Holder writes a check for four thousand pounds. Holmes produces the missing piece of gold from the coronet with three beryls on it. Holmes then tells Holder that he needs to apologize to his son. Sherlock Holmes explains that, like many women before her, Mary fell in love with Arthur's friend Sir George Burnwell. Holmes knows Sir George to be "an absolutely desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience". However, having succumbed to his charm, Mary would do anything he asked and saw him almost every evening. From a downstairs window, Mary told Sir George that the Beryl Coronet was in the house. When she saw her uncle approach, she closed the window and told him that she had seen Lucy Parr with Francis Prosper, which was true, although the maid and the greengrocer had nothing to do with the crime. Arthur awoke in the night and saw Mary going to the dressing room. He put on a shirt and pants and waited to see what would happen. He saw her leave with the Beryl Coronet, go downstairs and pass the coronet to someone through the window. After Mary returned to her room, Arthur ran downstairs, opened the window and jumped out into the snow in his bare feet. He ran after the thief, whom he found to be Sir George Burnwell. The two men struggled for possession of the coronet. Arthur got the coronet back but, in the struggle, the two men unintentionally did what was impossible for one man to do. They snapped a piece off the coronet which Sir George kept . Arthur went back though the window, closed it and went up to the dressing room to put the coronet back in the drawer. He noticed that a piece of the coronet was bent and tried to straighten it. Mary screamed and fainted when she saw that her crime had failed and the coronet was back in the house. Arthur did not tell his father or the police the truth about the crime out of love for Mary. He genuinely did not know where the three missing beryls were, although he suggested going outside for five minutes to look for them. Holmes could see the faint print of a wet foot on the downstairs windowsill. He worked out most of the details of the crime from examining footprints in the snow around the house. He could see that a man with a wooden leg had come to the house, although he was not involved in the crime. He could also see that a barefooted man had struggled with a man wearing boots. Suspecting Sir George Burnwell, Holmes disguised himself as a vagrant and went to Sir George's house. He was able to buy a pair of Sir George's old boots from his valet. Holmes returned to Streatham and found that the prints of the boots he was wearing matched those of the man who had struggled with the barefooted man exactly. Having changed back into his regular clothes, Holmes went to confront Sir George Burnwell. At gunpoint, Sir George finally admitted his involvement in the crime and gave Holmes the address of the man to whom he had sold the three beryls. Holmes was able to buy the beryls for three thousand pounds. He then went to the police station where Arthur was being held and had him released. Alexander Holder is overjoyed that a scandal has been avoided. It appears that he and his son will be reconciled. However, it is likely that Mary, who has left with Sir George Burnwell, will never be heard from again. Adaptations Two silent movie adaptations of "The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet" were made. An Anglo-French film version starring Georges Tréville as Holmes was released in 1912. The film is now lost. The second movie version, a short British film starring Ellie Norwood as Holmes, was released in 1921. The eighth episode of the BBC TV series Sherlock Holmes, starring Douglas Wilmer as Holmes and Nigel Stock as Watson, is an adaptation of "The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet". It was first shown in the United Kingdom on April 10, 1965. "The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet" was adapted as an episode of the American radio series CBS Radio Mystery Theater. The episode stars Kevin McCarthy as Holmes and featues the voices of Russell Horton, Court Benson, Murray Burnett and Catherine Byers. It was first broadcast on October 7, 1977. The adaptation is a largely faithful one, although there are some differences from the original short story. Instead of disguising himself as a vagrant and going to Sir George Burnwell's house, Holmes visits the gambling club of which Sir George is a member. Holmes pretends not to notice when Sir George cheats at cards and loses one hundred and fifty pounds to him. Holmes gets Sir George Burnwell to reveal the name and address of the person to whom he sold the beryls by threatening to tell the other club members how Sir George has cheated them for years. At the end of the episode, Holmes recuperates his gambling losses by asking Alexander Holder for a check for four thousand one hundred and fifty pounds. A faithful radio adaptation, starring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson, first aired on BBC Radio 4 in the United Kingdom on January 30, 1991. It is stated in the program that all of Sir George Burnwell's boots are specially made for him and are highly distinctive. Footnotes External links *Text of "The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet" on Wikisource. *Public domain audiobook of "The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet" on YouTube. *"The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet" on Baker Street wiki. Category:Detective Category:Mystery Category:Short Stories Category:Famous Category:Classic